South African Business 2018 edition

OVERVIEW
Information and communications
technology
A rural network is providing free local calls.
SECTOR INSIGHT
Barclays Africa Group spent
R3.1-billion on ICT in 2016.
• Farmers and Vodacom
are working on a sheeptracking
collar.
The biggest spenders on information communications technology
(ICT) are banks and other financial institutions. Existing banks may
have large customer bases but agile new competitors are able to
do without branch infrastructure and can connect directly with
clients via mobile phones and other devices. The financial sector is
responding via large investments in fintech.
One example is Barclays Africa Group’s expenditure of R3.1-billion
on ICT in 2016. The Big Four banks spent R30-billion in the year to
June 2016, with Standard Bank laying out R14-billion in that period
(Tech Central).
Companies in the sector are also spending heavily to stay ahead in
terms of technology. By way of example, Vodacom has spent approximately
R577-million over three years in the province of Limpopo alone.
South Africa’s appetite for fast Internet connectivity is growing fast.
The state-owned company Telkom controls most of the country’s fibre
cable but several smaller private companies are winning contracts to
lay fibre-optic cables around the country.
The Mail & Guardian reported in April 2016 that “nimble new entrants”
such as Vumatel, Fibrehoods, Link Africa (which runs its network
in the sewerage system, obviating the need to dig new trenches) and
Dark Fibre Africa are forcing the bigger telecommunications companies
to up their game. With faster Internet speeds, customers could switch
away from subscriber television services.
Allowing access to the Internet
to rural people and poorer people
in urban areas is a policy priority.
Access in South Africa is improving
all the time. As part of its mandate,
the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA)
has seen to it that various private
operators have connected more
than 623 schools around the country.
The Western Cape Provincial
Government and Neotel will roll
out 384 Wi-Fi hotspots in public
areas, and is aiming for complete
coverage by 2019.
Private companies like
Vodacom allocate specific budget
items to rural access and in
September 2017 it announced
that it would zero-rate its services
for university student and staff
who are Vodacom subscribers. To
illustrate the vastly different uses
to which technology can be put,
Vodacom is also developing an
affordable sheep-tracking collar
with farmers in the Eastern Cape.
There are also city programmes
such as the TshWifi (Tshwane), a
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